1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains generally to the preparation of firewood for burning in stoves, furnaces, fireplaces and the like, and more particularly to an attachment for use with tractors having conventional rear hitch or lift assemblies and which is adapted to fell standing timber, cut logs transversely to selected firewood lengths and split the cut logs lengthwise.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Numerous tractor mounted devices have been proposed for use in the lumber, pulpwood and firewood industry for felling standing timber. Such machines are disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,421,558 to Thompson; 4,384,599 to Dagenais and Re. 31,481 to Choat. These prior art devices have generally been relatively complex so as to be expensive, and thus their use has been generally limited to commercial wood harvesting operations. Still other devices have been proposed for splitting logs or for cutting the logs into segments of the desired length and then splitting them lengthwise. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,273,171 to Spaulding; 4,428,409 to Roetzler and 4,454,899 to Myers are exemplary of numerous such devices which can split, or cut and split, logs but which are not adapted for felling standing timber.
There has been a recognized need for a device capable of performing all three functions and which would yet be economically available to the ordinary person having access to a tractor for occasional use in making firewood. U.S. Pat. No. 4,398,581 to Aikins et al discloses a tractor mounted tree processing apparatus by which standing timber can be felled, cut to length, and the resulting logs split longitudinally to the desired size. While the device is capable of performing all three functions, it is relatively complex and requires the fabrication of a considerable number of costly specialized parts in its manufacture. There has thus not been available heretofore a tractor mounted device capable of performing all three functions which is durable, uncomplicated and relatively inexpensive to manufacture.